The U.S. military has spent about $1 billion on Libya’s revolution, and secretly helped NATO with everything from munitions to surveillance aircraft. John Barry provides an exclusive look at Obama’s emerging ‘covert intervention’ strategy.

The U.S. military has spent about $1 billion so far and played a far larger role in Libya than it has acknowledged, quietly implementing an emerging “covert intervention” strategy that the Obama administration hopes will let America fight small wars with a barely detectable footprint.

Officially, President Obama handed the lead role of ousting Muammar Gaddafi to the European members of NATO. For this he was criticized by Washington war hawks who suggested that Europeans working with a ragtag team of Libyan rebels was a recipe for stalemate, not victory.

But behind the scenes, the U.S. military played an indispensable role in the Libya campaign, deploying far more forces than the administration chose to advertise. And at NATO headquarters outside Brussels, the U.S. was intimately involved in all decisions about how the Libyan rebels should be supported as they rolled up control of cities and oil refineries and marched toward the capital, Tripoli.

The Libya campaign was a unique international effort: 15 European nations working with the U.S. and three Arab nations. The air offensive was launched from 29 airbases in six European countries. But only six European nations joined with the U.S. and Canada to fly strikes against Gaddafi’s forces. The scale of the unpublicized U.S. role affirms hawks’ arguments: a divided NATO simply couldn’t have waged the war it did without extensive American help. What the hawks underestimated was the U.S. ability to operate without publicity—in military lingo, beneath the radar.

According to two senior NATO officials, one American and the other European, these were the critical U.S. contributions during the six-month military campaign:

• An international naval force gathered off Libya. To lower the U.S. profile, the administration elected not to send a supercarrier. Even so, the dozen U.S. warships on station were the biggest contingent in this armada. In the opening hours of the campaign, an American submarine, the USS Florida, launched 100 cruise missiles against Libyan air defenses, crucially opening an entry corridor for the airstrikes that followed.

• U.S. tanker aircraft refueled European aircraft on the great majority of missions against Gaddafi’s forces. The Europeans have tanker aircraft, but not enough to support a 24/7 air offensive averaging, by NATO count, around 100 missions a day, some 50 of them strike sorties. The U.S. flew 30 of the 40 tankers.

• When the Europeans ran low on precision-attack munitions, the U.S. quietly resupplied them. (That explains why European air forces flying F-16s—those of Norway, Denmark, Belgium—carried out a disproportionate share of the strikes in the early phase of the campaign. The U.S. had stocks of the munitions to resupply them. When Britain and France, which fly European-built strike aircraft, also ran short, they couldn’t use U.S.-made bombs until they had made hurried modifications to their aircraft.)

Related

• To target Gaddafi’s military, NATO largely relied on U.S. JSTARS surveillance aircraft, which, flying offshore, could track the movements of rival forces. When more detailed targeting information was needed—as in the battles for Misrata and other towns defended by Gaddafi’s troops—the U.S. flew Predator drones to relay a block-by-block picture.

• U.S. Air Force targeting specialists were in NATO’s Naples operational headquarters throughout the campaign. They oversaw the preparing of “target folders” for the strikes in Tripoli against Gaddafi’s compound and the headquarters of his military and intelligence services. (Organizing precision strikes by high-speed jets is not a task for novices. The attack routes over Tripoli and the release times of bombs had to be precisely calibrated so munitions released even a second late by a strike aircraft would have the best chance of avoiding civilian homes.)

What seems to be evolving is a new American way of war.

• U.S. AWACS aircraft, high over the Mediterranean, handled much of the battle-management task, acting as air-traffic controllers on most of the strike missions. Again, the Europeans have AWACS, but not enough crews to handle an all-hours campaign lasting months.

• Eavesdropping by U.S. intelligence—some by aircraft, some by a listening post quietly established just outside Libya—gave NATO unparalleled knowledge of what Gaddafi’s military planned.

• All this was crucial in supporting the European effort. But U.S. involvement went way beyond that. In all, the U.S. had flown by late August more than 5,300 missions, by Pentagon count. More than 1,200 of these were strike sorties against Libyan targets.

• The administration largely stuck to Obama’s decision that the U.S. would not put boots on the ground in Libya (although the CIA did have agents inside Tripoli). British and French special forces were on the ground, training and organizing the insurgents—as were units from two Arab nations, Qatar and Jordan. But their communications relied on a satellite channel run by the U.S. And the U.S. also supplied other high-tech gear—NATO sources declined to describe it, but apparently it had never been given before, even to allied special forces.

• When a desperate Gaddafi began to launch Scud missiles into towns held by the opposition, a U.S. guided-missile destroyer offshore negated his offensive by shooting down the Scuds.

“President Obama may have taken the U.S. out of the direct combat role, but he certainly did not take American forces out of the front line,” Michael Clarke, director of the Royal United Services Institute think tank, wrote in a recent analysis. “The European allies were hardly ‘going it alone’ in this operation.”

With the Pentagon facing deep budget cuts, the Libyan campaign will likely provoke a debate in Washington. There is zero appetite to repeat the massive interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the U.S. is still embroiled a decade later. The Libya campaign appears to offer an alternative. It hasn’t been cheap. The Pentagon estimates U.S. operations there cost $896 million through the end of July.

The good news is that the U.S. will be repaid for its assistance to the Europeans—everything from fuel for the aircraft to munitions and spare parts—which cost a further $222 million, the Pentagon estimates. And compared with Afghanistan, which is still costing the U.S. taxpayer roughly $10 billion a month, Gaddafi’s overthrow has been a bargain.

One senior NATO official pointed to the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan at the end of 2001 as a precursor of the Libya campaign. In Afghanistan, U.S. special forces riding with Northern Alliance troops downloaded on their laptops satellite pictures of Taliban deployments over the next hill, and used their satphones and hand-held GPS targeting devices to call in airstrikes. The Taliban was overthrown in 63 days.

“That was a classic example of the U.S. using its technological supremacy to support local forces,” the official said. “Now we have Libya as another example.”

The campaign in Yemen provides a third example. For more than two years, U.S. special forces have been training and working with Yemeni troops to combat, among other insurgent groups, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). The U.S. campaign in Yemen has used conventional weaponry on occasion: sorties by Harriers and even some cruise-missile strikes. But the burden of much of the campaign has fallen to special-forces units, supported by Predators.

The ongoing struggle in Pakistan is arguably yet another case study in what seems to be evolving as a new American way of war.

Predator strikes against alleged Taliban and allied Afghan insurgent groups massing in Pakistan have preoccupied international attention. But senior NATO officers in Kabul whisper that again “beneath the radar,” CIA paramilitary operatives are inside Pakistan, leading groups of locally recruited frontier tribesmen. They apparently supply much of the targeting information for the Predators—especially against senior Taliban and al Qaeda operatives, who reportedly are the main targets of these CIA-led bands. Their mission may go beyond reconnaissance. According to one senior NATO officer in Kabul, some strikes credited to Predators actually result from raids by this covert force.

The killing 10 days ago of al Qaeda’s operations chief, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, in the Pakistani frontier province of Waziristan, was the greatest single success in the campaign. U.S. officials attributed al-Rahman’s death to a Predator strike. But on the question of how he was identified and tracked, the officials were tight-lipped.

John Barry joined Newsweek‘s Washington bureau as national-security correspondent in 1985. He has reported extensively on American intervention in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Haiti, Bosnia, Iraq, and Somalia and on efforts for peace in the Middle East. In 2002 he co-wrote The War Crimes of Afghanistan, which won a National Headliner Award. He won the 1993 Investigative Reporters & Editors Gold Medal for his investigation of the shooting down of an Iranian airliner by the USS Vincennes, as well as a 1983 British Press Award—the British equivalent of a Pulitzer—for his reconstruction of the U.S.-Soviet negotiations to ban intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe.

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Revolution ( in the US a constitutional right )

The 1776 Declaration of Independence stated that when a long train of abuses by those in power evidence a design to reduce the rights of people to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, it is the peoples right, in fact their duty to engage in a revolution.

and ….. JFK in his own words !

In a speech to the Newspaper Publishers Association in 1961, President Kennedy said:
“No president should fear public scrutiny of his program, for from that scrutiny comes understanding, and from that understanding comes support or opposition; and both are necessary. . . . Without debate, without criticism, no administration and no country can succeed, and no republic can survive. That is why the Athenian law makers once decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy. And that is why our press was protected by the First Amendment.”

Abraham Lincoln said, just before his assassination:

I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country...Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."
Hmmmm.

. . . → Read More: “Like the plot of a summer horror flick”: All along Canada’s Pacific coast, mussels are dying… Bodies are swollen by cancerous tumors — Unprecedented mutations allowing cancer to spread from one species to another like a virus — Scientists: “It’s beyond surprising” (VIDEO)

. . . → Read More: Spike in number of US sailors dying after Fukushima radiation exposure — Now over 400 veterans suffering serious illnesses — Former Japan Prime Minister breaks down crying, “This can’t be ignored any longer… The number of sick people is increasing and their symptoms are worsening” (VIDEOS)

. . . → Read More: TV: “Truly unsettling” discovery at Fukushima… problem “far greater than previously thought” — Boss reveals 600 tons of fuel melted, can’t find it — Top Official: “Nobody really knows where fuel is”… We may never be able to get it and just leave wherever — “Uncontrollable fission” is continuing under site (VIDEO) […]

History speaks of the emergence of many great empires. Some of them lasted for centuries and some of them for less than that. The durations of these empires related to many factors, but one of the most important factors was the relation between the people and rulers of these empires. In the Arab region, especially since the beginning of the Islamic era, big […]

United States Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter has arrived to Afghanistan, where he is going to meet with President Ashraf Ghani and visit US military bases located there. Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said that Ashton Carter and Ashraf Ghani discussed such issues as air operations, including the US ones, and "increased capacity of the Afghan security […]

Leading Senate Republicans are preparing to launch a coordinated and wide-ranging probe into Russia's alleged meddling in the U.S. elections and its potential cyberthreats to the military, digging deep into what they view as corrosive interference in the nation's institutions. Such an aggressive approach puts them on a direct collision course with […]

The world will look to Germany and Canada for leadership as the political status-quo is upended across the West, U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden said ahead of Donald Trump's inauguration. Visiting Ottawa before he leaves office, the vice-president called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau - who is beginning his second year in power - to set an example on th […]

The doping test samples of 12 Russian medalists from the Sochi Olympics in 2014 were tampered with, according to claims made in the second part of a WADA-commissioned report, authored by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren. Comment: Claims are useless without evidence to back them up. The Western media may be more than happy to repeat the claims of McLaren, but […]

It's like clockwork. Every year, right in the middle of October, I find myself stricken with panic and exhaustion that has nothing to do with my job or my personal life and everything to do with one simple environmental factor. The sun is going down, and all it takes to make my stomach drop is one glance out the window to see the sky growing dark by 6:3 […]

President Obama has ordered US spy agencies to prepare "a full review" of election-linked cyberattacks, but the public may never see it. The report should be ready before Obama vacates office and it is likely to be disclosed only to "a range of stakeholders." "The president has directed the intelligence community to conduct a full re […]

Cuban Vice President Ricardo Cabrisas and Russian deputy PM Dmitry Rogozin have signed a new defense cooperation program which will last until 2020, along with six other treaties covering technology, aviation, medicine and railroad transport. The defense agreement would largely be of a technical and advisory nature, rather than one which includes military su […]

One sample of strawberries contained residues of 20 pesticides New government data offers a potentially unappetizing assessment of the U.S. food supply: Residues of many types of bug-killing pesticides, fungicides and weed-killing chemicals have been found in roughly 85 percent of thousands of foods tested. Data recently released by the U.S. Department of Ag […]

Radio Free Europe informs us the number of Russian applications for US asylum has surged again in 2016: Russian citizens filed 1,912 new U.S. asylum application in the fiscal year ending September 30, up 31 percent compared to 2015 and 164 percent since 2012, when Putin was again elected president following a four-year stint as prime minister, new official s […]

The candidate of the largest opposition New Patriotic Party Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has won Ghana's closely contested presidential elections, official results released here Friday by the electoral commission showed.

Nearly 100 people were killed in road accidents in Laos during November, while some 750 others sustained injuries, according to a report of the Traffic Police Department under Lao Ministry of Public Security on Friday.

The 23rd ministerial meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the world's largest regional security organization, closed Friday with some consensuses being reached among its member states.

Philippine government troops fought with a heavy number of Abu Sayyaf militants in the south Thursday, killing three, including a soldier and two militants, and injuring six, security officials said Thursday.

Dutch right wing populist politician Geert Wilders was found guilty for insulting Moroccans as a group and inciting discrimination in court on Friday in Badhoevedorp, the Netherlands, but he was not given a punishment by the judges.

Tehran, Dec 9 , IRNA - The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in his message on International Anti-Corruption Day, 9 December 2016, said no country is immune of corruption and every country bears a responsibility to end it.

Tehran, Dec 9, IRNA — Director of the Public Relations Department at the Non-Industrial Operations Pars Pasargad Company (Assaluyeh site), Ali Hassan-Nejad, says exploitation of common gas fields will be the priority of the government in the future.

Islam Times - In a speech delivered Tuesday to a military audience at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, President Barack Obama made a veiled warning about the threat to American democracy posed by 15 years of unending war.

Islam Times - Bahrainis have rallied to voice their anger at a visit by British Prime Minister Theresa May to the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom which has been cracking down on pro-democracy protests for years.

Islam Times - The drama surrounding allegations that the internet is awash with “fake news” is being promoted by the so-called mainstream media which certainly has a lot to answer for when it comes to producing material that does not pass the smell test.

Islam Times - A key reason why American foreign debacles have been particularly destructive mostly to the countries attacked but also to the United States is that these interventions are always accompanied by major U.S. government investments in propaganda.

Islam Times - The government of Cuba is seeking to secure at least 12 more pacts with the United States through the administration of lame duck President Barack Obama before Donald Trump takes control of the White House.

Islam Times - The Israeli lawmakers have approved a hugely-controversial bill legalizing some 4,000 settler units built on private Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank, in the first of three readings needed to turn it into law.

Islam Times - Democratic lawmakers will not take issue with an expedited process designed to allow former General James Mattis to serve as US President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the military, says House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

In July 2003, the then Palestinian Authority Chairman, Yasser Arafat, described Mahmoud Abbas as a “traitor” who “betrayed the interests of the Palestinian People.” Arafat loathed Abbas to the very end. This particular outburst was made during a meeting with United Nations envoy Terje Larsen. The meeting took place a few months after Arafat was […] The post […]

The media and the foreign policy “experts” went ballistic recently over President-elect Donald Trump’s phone call with Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen. With one brief call, which the Trump team says was only a congratulatory call initiated by Ms. Ing-wen, Trump blew up our longstanding “One China” policy and precipitated a dangerous collision with Beijing. W […]

Last week, President-elect Donald Trump re-emphasized the approach he will take in enforcing the nation’s immigration laws, which is much different from the manner of enforcement utilized by President Barack Obama. The latter pointedly declined to deport the 5 million undocumented immigrants in the United States who are the parents of children born here – [… […]

The summary report on an investigation into US and allied air strikes on Syrian government troops has revealed irregularities in decision-making consistent with a deliberate targeting of Syrian forces. The report, released by US Central Command on 29 November, shows that senior US Air Force officers at the Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC) at al-Udeid [… […]

Bombers were successful in Baghdad and Mosul. An airstrike on Qaim unfortunately killed dozens of civilians. The post Bombers Successful in Mosul, Baghdad; 129 Killed in Iraq appeared first on Antiwar.com Original.

When it comes to foreign policy, the incoming Trump administration displays a split personality. This was readily apparent during the campaign, when, on the one hand, Donald Trump told us we were lied into the Iraq war, that NATO is “obsolete,” and that we have no business supporting regime change in Syria – and, on […] The post ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis and the Spir […]

According the US Department of Justice, it is the US president’s prerogative alone whether Israel’s nuclear weapons program triggers Arms Export Control Act laws governing US aid to foreign nuclear weapons states. In a 52-page motion to dismiss, (PDF) Justice Department Trial Attorney Michell R. Bennett outlined the defendants’ legal argument for why US citi […]

We still don’t have any sort of apology or retraction from the Washington Post for promoting “The List” – the highly dangerous blacklist that got a huge boost from the newspaper’s fawning coverage on November 24. The project of smearing 200 websites with one broad brush wouldn’t have gotten far without the avid complicity of […] The post Media Complicity Is […]

var icx_publication_id = 18566; var icx_content_id = '1068553'; Click here for reuse options! There are no rules anymore, it seems. Donald Trump isn’t letting his job as president force him to stop taking checks from his old job as executive producer of the reality TV show “Celebrity Apprentice.” Despite reportedly being so unprepared for the presi […]

var icx_publication_id = 18566; var icx_content_id = '1068547'; Click here for reuse options! "Make America gasp again!" Trump is already making good on his promise to return America to an earlier time, a time that includes a great deal more air pollution, Paul Krugman writes in Friday's column. He may not be able to bring all those […]

var icx_publication_id = 18566; var icx_content_id = '1068561'; Click here for reuse options! Meaning the espionage Trump invited and otherwise. President Obama has requested that intelligence agencies conduct a review of cyberattacks launched by Russia-backed state actors that may have had an impact on the presidential election and thus infringed […]

var icx_publication_id = 18566; var icx_content_id = '1068541'; Click here for reuse options! Spencer divulged the media's disregard for the black female rocket scientists behind the Apollo moon landing. Octavia Spencer is an Academy award-winning actress with her own day in her home state of Alabama. Her latest film, "Hidden Figures, […]

var icx_publication_id = 18566; var icx_content_id = '1068508'; Click here for reuse options! How exactly do white nationalists propose to create an all-white homeland in America without violence? So now we know: White nationalists have been working more on their wardrobes than on tightening up the rhetoric and logic they use to defend and present […]

Your so-called opposition coalition, renamed "Army of Aleppo", is a terrorist surrogate of US/Western powers whose goal is to overthrow the Syrian state and turn Syria into a US/Western vassal state, or colony. And your so-called "White Helmets" is not a humanitarian organization but a terrorist propaganda tool that pretends to be a human […]

Canadians are the ones who should be crying, look at the ridiculous figure that got elected as prime minister, Canadians,not the pampered effete elites like our prime minister will have to support ,with ever steeper taxes, muslims unable or unwilling to integrate, will have to put up with raped girls and constant threat of urban violence just so pompous prig […]

I'm reduced to tears thinking about what taking care of them for the rest of their lives is going to cost Canadians! They were all safe and living in apartments in Jordan and elsewhere in the Middle East and Justinhood had to, at great expense to the Canadian taxpayer, gather them up and move them here. He should have just contributed to their support f […]

Iran's presence in Syria is set for a long time to come. Now with Iraq, Syria, a growing Hizbullah force, Russia on one side the Arabs seem more divided than ever. Like it or not The US will slowly draw its support to the Pro Western Arab states. The Middle East will very soon be greater turmoil.

Jim W. Dean - The outrageous lies routinely thrown out at the UN by Ms. Power is a national embarrassment, but she is not to be blamed alone as she is following State Department policy which is following that of the President.

Finally, Obama has acted to tackle the election fraud that allowed the orange sleazebag to 'win'. However, it may sadly be too little, too late, as the Dec. 19th date for the electoral college will have passed and the report will not arrive until Trump has almost squeezed his bloated behind into the big chair.

At Standing Rock, so much was not what it seemed from the distance of news headlines and reports. Up close, one could see the ideological tension in romanticized groups where some are driven by moral imperatives and others by personal glory.

We have been reporting for over two years that Erdogan’s son has been the man responsible for the massive trade in stolen Iraqi oil that was being shipped out of northern Iraq in 12,000 tanker convoys through Turkey to be sold to unsuspecting European markets.

The Arabic-language Al-Hadath news website quoted the sources as saying that some specific groups that have trained medics have kidnapped the children, mutilated their body organs and then left their corpses in remote areas or buried them.

[Editor’s note: It is a sad truism that once you have successfully hacked an election, you also have the power to cover it up. We know full well that the Russians hacked the US electoral system and that is how and why the bloviating orange buffon Trump was ‘elected’. However, that knowledge is not the […]

…from SouthFront December 8 morning ISIS terrorists launched multiple offensives against Syrian government forces near Palmyra. The terrorist group used a high number of car bombs during the attack and seized notable areas northwest of the city, including Jazal, set a full control over Qasr al-Halabat south of Palmyra. The ISIS attack in the area […]

Civilians who fled from militants in east Aleppo say the so-called “moderate opposition” used torture and executed people, the Russian General Staff announced. “Civilians who escaped from terrorists are reporting about new crimes committed by the so-called ‘moderate opposition’ fighters in east Aleppo. There is confirmation of the facts of abuse, torture, pu […]

Nadia Prupis, staff writerBrazil's new neoliberal government is set to push through the most socially retrogressive austerity package in the world, a United Nations official warned on Friday, calling the proposed 20-year freeze on social spending a "radical measure, lacking in all nuance and compassion."

Andrea Germanos, staff writerThe U.S. military said Thursday that it intentionally bombed a hospital in Mosul, Iraq as part of its efforts to "eradicate" Islamic State (ISIS) fighters. The attack on the Al Salam hospital complex took place Wednesday at the request of Iraqi forces, with coalition aircraft using "precision-guided munitions, […]

Andrea Germanos, staff writerWashington on Thursday became the first U.S. state to file a lawsuit against Monsanto for damages related to the company's production of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Monsanto was the only U.S. company to produce the toxic industrial chemicals from 1935 to 1979, when they were banned by the Toxic Substances Control Act.

Lauren McCauley, staff writerPresident-elect Donald Trump, a supposedly populist candidate who rose to power on promises made to frustrated American workers, has now seemingly launched what Politico is describing as an outright "war on unions."

Nika Knight, staff writerThe veterans who deployed to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe reservation in North Dakota to support the water protectors in their battle against the Dakota Access Pipeline are now looking to take their successful mobilization to another community fighting for clean water: Flint, Michigan.

The "rhetoric of fascism" is on the rise in the U.S. and Europe, a United Nations official warned on Thursday, a disturbing trend that puts "unprecedented pressure" on human rights standards around the world.

Lauren McCauley, staff writerThe city of Portland, Oregon on Wednesday took a bold step towards addressing the national scourge of extreme pay inequality with the passage of a landmark tax penalty to be imposed on companies whose CEO makes more than 100 times the average worker's salary. "This is as close as I've ever [come] to a tax on inequa […]

Deirdre Fulton, staff writerFormer U.S. senator and astronaut John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, died on Thursday at age 95, according to Ohio State University. "John Herschel Glenn Jr. had two major career paths that often intersected: flying and politics, and he soared in both of them," the Associated Press wrote in its obituary f […]

Outrage continues to grow over Scott Pruitt, the nominee to head up the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under President-elect Donald Trump, particularly over his climate change denial and ties to the fossil fuel industry. Pruitt has drawn criticism for his belief that human-caused climate change is unproven, among other critical environmental issues.

On Wednesday, President Barack Obama announced that the United States would be changing its policy toward Cuba, opening a Havana embassy and expanding travel. “Through these changes, we intend to create more opportunities for the American and Cuban people and begin a new chapter among the nations of the Americas,” President Obama explained. The president neg […]

President Barack Obama revealed his favorite film of the year to People Magazine in an interview released on Wednesday. Obama named Richard Linklater’s Boyhood his favorite movie of 2014. “Boyhood was a great movie,” he told People Magazine. “That, I think, was my favorite movie this year.” The film, a coming-of-age tale, was shot over a period of 12 year […]

Minnesota State Representative Greg Davids is calling for embattled MIT economics professor Jonathan Gruber, the "architect" of Obamacare, to return all $329,000 he was paid by the state of Minnesota as a subcontractor on a 2011 contract to analyze the state's plan to develop its Obamacare health care exchange, MNSure. On November 21, Davids s […]

While some believe today's actions toward Cuba are within the scope of Barack Obama's role as chief executive, there are others who maintain it's not so clear. Given considerable opposition to his move to significantly loosen restrictions as regards Cuba, he may even end up facing a legal challenge. That would be in line with current challenge […]

Fox News Analyst and columnist for The Hill, Juan Williams, argued that the deal the Obama administration cut with the government of Cuba was "a pig in a poke" and that "there is nothing there" on Wednesday's "Special Report" on the Fox News Channel. "The United States got sold a pig in a poke, there is nothing there […]

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Handing environmentalists a breakthrough victory, New York plans to prohibit fracking for natural gas because of what regulators say are its unexplored health risks and dubious economic benefits. New York, which overlies part of the gas-rich Marcellus Shale formation that has led to a drilling boom in Pennsylvania and other nearby states, […]

Wednesday, People magazine published an interview titled "The Obamas: How We Deal with Our Own Racist Experiences," in which Michelle Obama claimed it was due to racism that a woman at Target asked her for help to get detergent from a high shelf. "I tell this story, I mean, even as the first lady, during that wonderfully publicized trip I too […]

Despite, or perhaps because of Barack Obama being in the White House - many feel he's done more harm than good to race relations in America - an NBC News/ Wall Street Journal poll "showed the most pessimistic assessment of racial issues in almost two decades." A majority of Americans, 57% now say they are bad. In the wake of protests over the […]

Senator and prospective 2016 Republican presidential hopeful Rand Paul addressed several Goldman Sachs executives during "a closed-door audience at the firm's 200 West offices as part of an internal company speaker series known as Talks@GS." Reportedly, "Paul spoke about foreign policy, the economic recovery, and race relations, ... and h […]

[Dalsan Radio] As the 2016 Somalia Parliamentary election results streamed in from across the regions new faces and old faces in the politics of the horn of Africa country emerged as winners in a poll that has turned out to have its fair share of surprises

[Deutsche Welle] Ghanaian opposition candidate Nana Akufo-Addo has said he was "quietly confident" he won his country's election. The electoral commission has yet to release most results from Wednesday's vote.

[allAfrica] The Gambia is free at last of Yahya Jammeh. Newly elected President Adama Barrow must now take bold steps to restore Gambia's place as a responsible West African nation, with special emphasis on cooperative and productive ties with Senegal.

[Monitor] The Hague/Kampala -Secret communication intercepts by the Ugandan army and police have come in handy for prosecution at The Hague to build its case that former Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) commander Dominic Ongwen co-planned and commanded attacks against civilians, church institutions and military targets in northern Uganda.

[HRW] Equatorial Guinea's government has tirelessly worked to stop the prosecution of the president's eldest son, known as Teodorin Nguema, who is accused of laundering tens of millions of Euros in France that were allegedly stolen from his oil-rich country. But yesterday, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) - the United Nation's main cou […]

[Radio Dabanga] River Nile -An academic hospital in northern Sudan has dismissed eighteen lab technicians who participated in a strike staged against the deteriorating working environment. Ten others were stopped from entering the hospital.

President Maduro ordered intelligence services to take “necessary actions” as citizens began to denounce difficulties with payment terminals and electronic banking platforms across the country. read more

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) officially recognised Thursday the Venezuela festival of El Callao on its List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. read more

A prolific consultant, author and academic specialising in political communication, Mario Riorda spends a great deal of time crisscrossing the map, addressing audiences eager to hear his analysis of the intersection of politics and communication. Author of the recently released Cambiando: el eterno comienzo de la Argentina, Riorda analysed the first year of […]

Buenos Aires: A tale of two cities December 2, 2016

by Agustina Larrea Housing, unemployment, healthcare, pollution, infant mortality rates, even life expectancy — there’s a world of difference between the thriving north and forgotten south of Buenos Aires “When the City government neglects our neighbourhood it has concrete consequences: our kids are dying. Literally,” says Natalia Quinto, activist and member […]

by Sorrel Moseley-Williams While model Germán Fontanini essentially lives out of a suitcase, moving between the likes of India and South Africa for jobs, he spends considerable time living in the world’s most populated country. Currently on location in Cape Town, Hangzhou, China, is his base.

Yesterday afternoon, we heard that the Women’s Boat to Gaza was making good progress on the Mediterranean and the women on board were excited about meeting the people on the shores of Gaza who were waiting for them. Some Palestinians even spent the night at the beach to greet them. At 15:58 CET, flotilla organizers lost contact with the boat, Zaytouna-Oliva. […]

In the early morning hours of Sunday September 18, the Israeli police began an arbitrary arrest campaign targeting Palestinian activists from the National Democratic Assembly (NDA). The arrests targeted the Head of the political party, Mr Awad Abdelfattah, among other dozens of leaders and members, part of them members of the local authority councils. The ar […]

By Greta Berlin, Co-Founder, Free Gaza movement We were so late leaving Cyprus for Gaza. The 30+ passengers waiting in the hot, dusty confines of the University in Nicosia were fed up and beginning to wonder if two boats ever existed. Every day, I went into the morning meeting and said, “Not today, they are in a storm.” Or, “Not today, they have had problems […]

The Debra Evenson Venceremos International Award is presented on an annual basis as a national Guild award to honor outstanding international legal work, legal solidarity, international advocacy, and justice beyond borders, in the tradition of Debra Evenson. Former Guild President Debra Evenson was a leading expert on Cuba’s legal system, a law professor and […]

On Aug. 18, 2014, a crowd gathered outside the downtown St. Louis office of Jay Nixon, the governor of Missouri. The governor, responding to protests in Ferguson over the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, had just activated the National Guard, and the demonstrators outside his office were outraged at what they saw as heavy-ha […]

MEMO | Sept 2, 2014 Senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Zahar said on Monday that the United States is a partner to the Israeli occupation and its crimes committed in the Gaza Strip.Speaking to the Palestinian Al-Quds television, he said: “We mean the US administration, not the American people, who took to the streets in […]

MEMO | Tuesday, 02 September 2014 11:46 IMAGES The explosives engineering division in the Ministry of Interior in the Gaza Strip yesterday destroyed around five tonnes of unexploded bombs that were launched by the Israeli army on the sector during their latest assault. Imad Al-Amasi, director of the division, told the Anadolu news agency: “Today, […]

Tuesday September 02, 2014 05:05 by IMEMC News & Agencies Israeli forces kidnapped six Palestinians and physically assaulted two teenagers in West Bank districts, on Monday, according to reports by security sources. Also on Monday, seven residential and agricultural structures in the southern Hebron Governorate were demolished. PCHR archive photo Israe […]

Tuesday September 02, 2014 10:03 by Saed Bannoura – IMEMC News Palestinian medical sources report that a man and a child have died of serious injuries suffered, in different strikes, during Israel’s extensive bombardment and aggression on the Gaza Strip. Image – Palestinian Ministry Of Health The sources said resident Bassem ‘Ajjour died, on […]

Tuesday September 02, 2014 10:54 by Saed Bannoura – IMEMC & Agencies Dozens of Israeli soldiers invaded, on Tuesday at dawn, ‘Anza village, south of the northern West Bank city of Jenin, broke into and ransacked several homes, and kidnapped 17 Palestinians. Soldiers also invaded a flea market near Nablus, and closed it. File […]

by Richard Silverstein on September 1, 2014 | Tikun Olam | תיקון עולם IDF Col. Ofer Winter’s approach to Rafah: apres moi, le deluge. The Israeli attorney general and military prosecutor have begun investigations of numerous incidents during Operation Protective Edge which may reach to the level of war crimes : While fighting still raged, […]

By Stephen Lendman | Global Research, September 01, 2014 On August 31, Israel’s Civil Administration announced confiscation of around 1,000 acres of privately owned Palestinian land. It lawlessly declared it State Land. It’s to establish a Gva’ot settlement. It’s located south of Bethlehem. It’s in the Southern West Bank. Peace Now calls itself “the leading […]

However dubious big Republican supporters of Israel felt about Donald Trump, in the last weeks of the election campaign many of them gave a lot of money to the Republican Party; and Sheldon Adelson and his wife gave $10 million to a pro-Trump PAC

This January, after several years of often-heated discussion and review, the Modern Language Association’s representative body will consider a resolution to endorse the Palestinian call for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions. The relative absence of Palestinian testimony from debates at scholarly associations prompted a number of MLA members to visit […]

At Texas A&M, alt-right leader Richard Spencer praises Israel for its intrinsically racist and exclusionist policies, and Hillel Rabbi Matt Rosenberg has no answer. No Zionist can have one, and no wonder Israel's defenders are queasy these days.

After a fire erupted in the illegal Israeli settlement of Halamish, dozens of Palestinians have been detained in the occupied West Bank village of Deir Nidham. And it has been blockaded by the Israeli army, “turning the lives of 1,600 into a prison,” locals told Ma‘an.

Palestinians have lived in the refugee camps around Lebanon since the Nakba in 1948 when they were forcibly ejected from their homeland by Israel. Most of these Palestinians have never set foot in Palestine and are prevented from doing so by Israel. Only the oldest have any memory of their homeland. Celia Peterson interviewed Palestinians of various ages in […]

Occupation-Free Portland, a coalition of faith, social justice and peace organizations, in collaboration with Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign, have launched an ad campaign on TriMet buses serving the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area that read, “Portland: Divest from Caterpillar. Caterpillar Violates Human Rights from Standing Rock to Palestine.” The ad […]

Chemi Shalev and Jeremy Ben-Ami say that if Keith Ellison is defeated for Democratic Party chair, there will be a backlash against the organized Jewish community that has opposed a rising star; and that is bad for Jews. Ellison is shaking up the discussion of US policy.

Jewish national self-determination (also known as Zionism) is an unshakable right and today an indivisible part of Jewish identity. You question it at your peril. Despite all that, Robert Cohen is chucking it in. You can have it back he says. He doesn't need it.

Last night the Peace United Church of Christ in Santa Cruz, CA voted to refrain from buying Hewlett-Packard (HP) products until HP companies cease to profit from Israel’s violation of Palestinian human rights. The congregation made the move as part of the HP-Free Churches campaign initiated by the Friends of Sabeel North America.

The Venice Commission, an advisory body at the human rights watchdog Council of Europe, says Turkey is abusing state of emergency laws in its wider efforts to purge so-called state saboteurs after the failed mid-July coup. It said the government is casting too wide a net over people linked to the Fethullah Gulen movement, which Ankara blames for the coup att […]

Dutch anti-EU, anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders will hear Friday whether he has broken the law by calling for "fewer Moroccans" in the Netherlands, but has already said in a statement he would not change his behaviour. "The verdict, whether acquittal or conviction, will not change anything de facto," Wilders said according to the Telegraaf new […]

The South Korean parliament has voted to impeach its scandal-hit president amid mass protests in Seoul. Park Geun-Hye faces being the first democratically-elected leader of the country to be kicked out of office following the vote. The impeachment motion had accused Park of constitutional and criminal violations ranging from a failure to protect people’s liv […]

Obama traveled to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida this week to address the military for the last time. Obama defended his policies that resulted in the rise of the Islamic State. The lame-duck president also defended Islam and blamed Americans for feeding the terrorist narrative. Good grief. Breitbart reported: “Obama said, ‘We are […]

A sobering Ministry of Defense (MoD) report circulating in the Kremlin today states that President Putin’s ordering to full combat alert status yesterday of the feared S-400 Triumf air defense missile systems in the Western Military District along the Federations entire border with NATO aligned nations was in direct response to the “Christmas Threat” issued […]

A 41-year-old man had been detained on suspicion of murder, after he is believed to have set fire to his wife on a street in the northern town of Kiel on Wednesday. “We think it’s clear in this case that malevolence and brutality, both requisites for a murder charge, exist,” said state prosecutor Axel Bieler […]

It’s official – The ‘TRUMP STOCK MARKET RALLY’ continues to shatter the record books. As a matter of fact, what we have seen since President-Elect Donald Trump won the Presidential election on November 8th, has never occurred before. Out of 21 days since the election, the Dow has reached all time closing highs 13 of […]

Motorcyclist catches an escaped yellow parakeet with one hand /u/maestro89

Two Years /u/GreyRobe

You are clever my friend....very clever..... /u/4kaee

Last nights sunset in Zion NP, Utah [OC] 1200x797 /u/cozmo2312

Japan has launched a cargo ship which will use a half mile- (700m)-long tether to remove some of the vast amount of debris from Earth's orbit. /u/NinjaDiscoJesus

The Last Guardian (Dunkey vid) /u/CatsLikeToMeow

I am the harbinger of the companions, arch-mage, the listener of the dark brotherhood, thane of all 9 holds, master of the thieves guild, nightingale, werewolf, dragonborn... and this is still my proudest moment. (Credit u/lithium2017) /u/Clever_BigMack

It's Uber for haircuts! It's Uber for ice cream! The rash of startups claiming to mimic Uber but for other goods and service don't really get what Uber is. The post The 'Uber for X' Fad Will Pass Because Only Uber Is Uber appeared first on WIRED.

Without external cameras or beacons, Occipital's environment-mapping headset adds advanced mixed-reality capabilities to the iPhone 6, 6S, and 7. The post The Bridge Headset Powers Up iPhone VR With Positional Tracking appeared first on WIRED.

Dyson's Cu-Beam Duo looks like a satellite, runs for decades, and gives you total control of your office lighting. The post Dyson's Cu-Beam Duo Is a Radically New Office Lamp—Seriously appeared first on WIRED.

Curated this year by Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset, the 15th Istanbul Biennial, titled ‘A good neighbor,’ will deal with notions of neighborhood and home while exploring how living modes have changed. The biennial will take place between Sept 16 and Nov 12, 2017

Turkish actress Tuba Büyüküstün, who has many fans around the world thanks to her appearance in various TV series, especially in the Middle East, drew great interest at the recent 13th Dubai International Film Festival.

Fifty-one academics out of 87 who were issued detention warrants have been detained by police at Istanbul University over suspected links to U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, accused of orchestrating the July 15 failed coup attempt, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.

Excavation work in a house in the southern province of Mersin’s Tarsus district has drawn much curiosity after continuing for 20 days under the direction of the special forces and the National Intelligence Agency (MİT), Doğan News Agency has reported.

Turkey has criticized a decision by a Greek appeals court to reject an extradition request for five Turkish soldiers who fled to the country after the failed coup of July 15, repeating its call for the extradition of a total of eight Turkish military personnel

The Turkish government has expressed concern over Israel’s plans to establish a new settlement project on occupied Palestinian territories, in a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry late on Dec. 8.